NRS-17101 | Punishment Books [Moonan Brook Public School]

Full description

Regulations under the Public Schools Act of 1866, adopted by the Council [of Education] 27 February 1867 regulated the punishment of children in schools by stipulating: “In the government of the pupils, all degrading and injurious punishments are to be avoided. The Teacher’s discipline must be mild but firm, his manner kindly, his demeanour cheerful and calculated to gain the confidence of his pupils, and his language marked by strict propriety. While he should overlook no offence, his aim should be to prevent the necessity for punishment by the improvement of the offender.”

In relation to corporal punishment the regulations continue: “Corporal punishment should be inflicted in extreme cases only, and then as a last resource; and the teacher must keep a record of the time and place at which pupils were corporally chastised, the amount of such punishment and the nature of the offence.”

Uniform stationery soon evolved to enable compliance with these regulations. These punishment books are registers of all cases in which corporal punishment was given to pupils. The information they detail includes: the pupil’s name; age; nature of offence; amount of punishment (i.e. number of strokes); instrument of punishment (invariably the cane); the date of the punishment; and by whom the punishment was inflicted.

It is likely that an earlier volume, covering the period from 1869 until 1886, is now missing.

The earlier of the surviving volumes is much worn, and the high-cellulose paper of which it is composed is becoming fragile. All pages of this volume are now detached and loose within its covers, and the original second leaf, bearing entries for the year 1890 and for most of 1891, is lost. The first leaf of this volume is somewhat tattered, especially at the lower edge. The later volume, by contrast, is in very good condition.